fasten your seat belts, america. bill maher is here. >> i'm against building mosques, churches, temples anywhere, because i'm an atheist and they perpiate mass delusion. no strings and these guys stole it. >> piers: always controversial. >> every democracy is a hybrid. it's not evil. >> piers: what on earth will bill maher say tonight? >> i want to feel like i broke into the studio and made them mad.

>> piers: nothing is off limits on his show, but tonight he's on my show. i'm going to grill him about the race for president, the government going bust and even the casey anthony trial. bill maher for the hour. this is "piers morgan tonight." >> piers: bill, welcome. i feel -- you are such an institutional guest for larry before. it's the first time to have you here. >> it's great to be back in the time slot. >> piers: i thought about the ways we could start this. i think there's probably nothing more pertinent, i would say, than the state of america's debt. >> sexy topic. >> piers: it's the key issue to me. if america goes bust, that's it. >> it's astounding to me that we're actually having an argument over whether america

should pay its bills. >> piers: i totally agree. >> it shows you where the insanity has gone. i don't think people realize it because they don't follow it, especially the people who are pushing to hold the line. so what if the debt ceiling -- i think they think it's money we haven't spent yet. that if we just cut it off, starve the beast, everything will be fine and we'll get our fiscal house in order. no. this is money we already spent. george bush and the republicans, they sat down and ordered a lot of food. then they got up from the table before the check came. now somebody has to pay that check. >> piers: the person in charge of trying to pay it is president obama. >> america does not dine and dash. >> piers: this is president obama in the press conference specifically on this debt issue. >> i will not sign a 30 day or 60 day or 90s day extension. that is just not an acceptable approach.

if we think it's going to be hard -- if we think it's hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season when they're all up. it's not going to get easier. it's going to get harder, so we might as well do it now. pull off the band-aid. eat our peas. >> time to eat our peas. >> it's good to see him do that. good to see him saying i'm not going to budge. his motto is you've got to meet the other guy 14 out of 15 times. that's what clinton did. he said go ahead. >> piers: call their bluff. >> let's see, two people -- if that's the only way anything gets done in washington is by everybody being ridiculously obstinate, the republicans to be

digging in their heels on the debt ceiling, this is something that both parties have tortured each other with over the years. the party out of power threatens this. >> piers: with the election coming, i mean if i was a republican, the way to beat president obama, the way the job figures end at the moment, 9.2%, the state of the economy, turmoil around the country continuing, the way to beat him is to take him on on the economy. the best way to paralyze him is to continue doing what they're doing. it's not in their interest to do a deal. >> no probably about it. that's exactly what they're doing. ann coulter was on our show on friday called "treason once." little love at the top. >> piers: she thinks we're bombing egypt at the moment. >> as long as you are going to be the one to invoke treason, are the republicans really doing what's in the best interest of america or are they doing what's

in the best interest of their party to win the next election? they know the economy has to stay sucky in 2012 for them to win. if the economy is doing a lot better, obama wins going away. i don't think they're doing anything. john boehner tweeted to obama the other day when he was doing his town hall on twitter, you know, after record binge spending, where are the jobs? well, i don't know, you're in the congress. isn't it the congress' job to present a jobs bill? >> piers: i like the quote from warren buffett. we should pass a law, all sitting members of congress are ineligible for re-election. i like that. that's how a businessman would run his company. >> that's another fallacy. somehow, businessmen are going to be good at running the government. they're not the same thing. you can't fire the congress the way you can fire your board.

mitt romney is running on that silly idea that i ran a business. i know how to create jobs. no, actually what he did was fire people. he knows how to destroy jobs to create profit. >> piers: we're going to come to the candidates in a minute. i think it's good to focus on the economy and present himself as the guy that understands it. isn't that clever? >> it's clever for a country that doesn't pay attention and where people don't think too much about any issue. the truth is that government is there to do the things that are not supposed to turn a profit. i heard tim pawlenty say the same thing. amtrak doesn't make a profit. it's not supposed to make a profit. it's like saying why doesn't the marine corps make a profit. >> piers: america is a country, unlike in britain where you have the class system, where you went too school and who your parents are and who you are bred into,

that's how you get on in life. in america, i've spend four or five years immering myself in this culture, the class system is built on hard work, success and achievement. it's surprising to me the people governing the country pander to that by this rhetoric of everything has to make a profit because the way you have a yardstick of success. >> if you're talking about social mobility, yes, that's the american dream, the ability of one generation to do better than the generation that spawned them. that was something that was quintessentially american. we're tenth in the american dream right now. we're tenth in social mobility compared to other countries around the world. which is like sweden coming in tenth for swedish meat balls. >> piers: i happen to be on donald trump. i like him.

i've been on one of his shows obviously. he went lashing into china, i thought he slightly missed the point. it seems to me the trick america should be now deploying surely as one of the great producers in the past is to produce stuff that countries like china need. the reason i say that again to you is there was a brilliant report this week that in china, the need and demand for american crops, for example, corn, is absolutely going through the roof. this is the way that america should be thinking. it should be identifying what these countries, they're not emerging countries. china has emerged. what do they need that america can provide them? put the foot on the gas. >> or green technology. stem cell research. one of the reasons why america falls behind every year more and more is because we're a superstitious, hyperreligious country.

if we could have had stem cell research, you know, there's so many patents for so many scientific areas that come out of that, but we're falling behind in that area because we don't put a premium on science anymore. science is suspect in this country. >> piers: china has no overtaken america in the production of unscientific research. i found that staggering. i know in schools i've seen in europe which are full of, especially the private schools, of the very smart, and very hard-working chinese who come in. i played a game of soccer with my sons recently. i managed miraculously to score a good goal. i was doing my dad triumph thing. two of my sons spontaneously said dad, that was so chinese. i thought it would be racist. this is the new school ground compliment around the world. being chinese is what being american used to be. >> i got to have kids to keep up. >> piers: it is how you find out

what the future is. these kids use as being chinese as a clint. this is the best compliment they could pay me. i found it extraordinary. >> that's one of the scariest things i've ever heard in this time slot. >> piers: why? >> it shows we're falling behind china. >> piers: your way of embracing all the new economies rather than seeing it as a great threat, can america see everything economically militarily as a threat? >> we would have to reconfigure all of our priorities. what do we spend all of our money on? debt, paying off our debt and the military. while they're talking about all this budget stuff in washington and dickering over $100 million here and there, they just passed and nobody even questioned it, pentagon spending bill, $648 billion, which i think is more than the next 17 countries combined or something like that.

we could cut this in half, i think, and still be probably safe in the world. who's the threat that's going to invade us? >> piers: many americans, it seems to me -- you say this stuff and i bet you get deluged with stuff calling you unpatriotic. it's unamerican to admit you shouldn't be spending money on the military, doing things the old american way. i mean, is it time that america completely changed its philosophy on these things. >> what's patriotic is wanting your country to succeed. our country is not succeeding because our military is too big. people call it the military and then it's hands off. it's not military. it's defense contractors. most of our weaponry is ridiculous. it's not -- it's for fighting the russians in 1978. we don't need that. what would make this country stronger is economics. that's where the future is.

that's what makes a country strong. if you're not strong economically you are not -- >> piers: that's where america is increasingly weak. >> this is one reason. we could solve this debt deficit problem if we would do two simple things. tax the rich like they used to be taxed. not a hell of a lot more, just like they were under clinton and bring the troops home. not just from iraq and afghanistan, but we have half a million troops in bases across the world. >> piers: how many do the chinese have? >> none. they don't have troops. because they know this is not the way you achieve agemny in this world. >> piers: i did a documentary in shanghai recently. fascinating time to be out there. this dynamism that you felt along the city. one frosting young multi millionaire, 125,000 millionaires in shanghai alone. >> how many. >> 125,000 millionaires in shanghai.

he said i don't want to kill you. i don't want to take over your land. i want to sell you a duvet. i want to tell you everything in your home but i don't want to kill you. >> that's how they will be number one. they are building $300 billion of high speed rail. this country trying to get the money to build, i think it's $8 billion. they want to lay it between l.a. and las vegas, which i think it's funny that those are the two cities that have to be connected, but we have none. >> piers: i'm going to ask you which of these two people have the best chance of putting america back on its feet? sarah palin or michele bachmann? >> that's what they call a hobson's choice.

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and great, and know nothings and jesus freaks who claim to receive messages from god who get their historical facts wrong all the time and give off a sound that only animals here and make microwaves explode. seriously, stop comparing them. >> piers: if you had a choice, gun to your head, which one is it? palin or bachmann? >> i hope sarah palin gets in so they split the milf vote, but i guess bachmann, i don't know. who could say? at least she's somebody who can read. she has a job. she was a lawyer. she was in congress. she's not someone who just sits there and reads the prayers on her blackberry like sarah palin. we're splitting hairs here. >> piers: could sarah palin be president in the current climate? >> absolutely.

yes. people who say this one is a joke, this one is a joke. i remember when i was 12 years old and ronald reagan was first considering running for president. i remember what a joke that was. ronald reagan? you mean the bedtime for bonzo guy? she could get the nomination. this republican party is not your father's republican party. somewhere they got on a short bus to crazy time. if someone gets the nomination of one of the two major parties especially in a bad economy with a black president, yeah, she could become president. >> piers: is america more or less racist now since obama has been in power? >> that's a great question. i don't know. i think it's more sneakily racist. i have more respect for the old school racist like strom thurm ond as opposed to the rand paul

type of guys who say i would have marched with dr. king. you don't get points for what you would do in your imagination. i would help jesus escape but i wasn't around. >> piers: are there any other candidates that you would see as potentially not life threatening? >> hopefully mitt romney. we depend on him to be a giant shape shifter and liar. there's not an issue, from when he was the republican governor of liberal massachusetts. there is not an issue. he has not done a complete 180 on, from abortion to campaign finance, whatever it is. i have to think if he got into office, maybe he would be somewhat of a normal president, but you don't know, because he has to answer to that crazy party. >> piers: has there ever been a president in your lifetime who has been properly principled in your eyes? >> jimmy carter was an amazingly

principled president. did what he said. didn't fire a shot. did not fire a bullet, a missile while he was president. he says as world superpower, we have an obligation not to attack other countries unless we're attacked. yeah, i mean history has not been kind to jimmy carter and that is the fault of history. >> piers: is that part of the problem of being the guy at the white house? i was reading george bush's book. >> it attracts criticism. >> piers: there's a kind of expectation from this mass populace that you have to do certain things. i read about the aftermath of 9/11. i read george bush's account, and i was more understanding of why he is a guy from texas, felt compelled to do what he did. he felt he had to do something for his american people. >> he did have to do something. he didn't have to do what he

did. what he should have done, after 9/11 when everybody was in the mood to sacrifice, ask people to sacrifice. he told people to go shopping and attack the wrong country, a country he wanted to attack from the get go to avenge his father, whatever the hell the reason was. but yeah, he could have done something. he also should have learned about it. this is the man who said, at the point where they were thinking of attacking the country, they told them about sunnis and she heights and he said i thought they was all muslims. really? we're attacking the country. you are the leader of this country who's attacking that country and you don't know about the shiite sunni thing. to me, that's impeachable. >> piers: how do you think president obama is doing? >> you can't not love him. coming in after bush, you have him there, you have a guy you could relate to. he's intelligent, he can speak english.

i don't think about george bush at all anymore. he's like an uncle who molested me and i blocked it out. you could just tell, you would like to have dinner with obama. he's a constitutional law professor. >> >> piers: he's a good front man. he's a good figurehead for the country. >> that too. he's terribly disappointing as a negotiator and as a liberal. it makes me laugh when they say he's a socialist. he's not even a liberal. he's a centrist at best. he's constantly voicing the republican opinion. paul krugman made a comment about the other day. why is obama carrying water for the republican party. why, if they're having this giant discussion about the debt and deficit, why is obama saying the stupid things that they say. we have to treat our government like a family does. that's stupid. you don't treat a family doesn't run up a deficit. a certain deficit is good for a government.

the silliness about how we have to be super kind to the rich because they're the job creators. which is b.s. also. and that sometimes you have to, even when you have a debt, spend more money to get the economy going again. >> piers: i agree that on one level, the criticism that seems most accurate to me is he can be dissident in decision making. that hasn't helped america get out of the economic strife. when you think he's dissident, he comes out with the stunning strike with the navy s.e.a.l.s. >> that's the low hanging fruit. it doesn't cost anything. everyone wanted to see it done. >> piers: if it had gone wrong, it could have cost him the election. >> he's got a pair on him. the editor that got the most reaction is when i said it would be a shame if four years of democratic rule came to an end

without trying democratic policies. that's the problem i think all progressives have. is that a democrat gets in and we don't attempt democratic policy. >> piers: what does that mean? >> stop talking about the debt and the deficit. when dick cheney was in office and they were running up all the debt. you can look this up. there are facts outside of the fox news bubble, actual facts and numbers. most of the debt was run up under bush. dick cheney said "deficits don't matter." why can't obama say that? why is it okay when dick cheney says that? i'm not saying it's all race, but it seems weird that suddenly he gets into office and the debt and deficit is intolerable. the republicans have some nerve. bush came into office. the debt was 5.6 trillion. he took a surplus and turned it into a $10 trillion debt with stuff they didn't pay for. they didn't pay for the wars.

they didn't pay for the tax cuts, for the rich, which should be called tax spending for the rich, because it is spending. the prescription drug program, all of that unpaid for. suddenly obama comes into office and they act like he's newt gingrich's wife at tiffany's. his big spending, the stimulus, was mostly a republican spending plan. >> piers: how would you describe your policies? are you a socialist, liberal or both? >> first of all, every modern government nowadays is a hybrid socialism. the post office, marine corps, veterans administration. >> piers: what tag are you proudest of putting yourself to? >> i think i'm just practical. i don't think i'm an idealogue. >> piers: you hate republicans. you hate their ideology. >> i hate stupidity. it's not because you're a republican. the fact that they all fall in

line, there are republicans who i respect. mostly, there are republicans who are out of office who are criticizing their own party. if it's stockman, bartlett, lots of these people who are saying what is has happened to the party that i knew? where are these republicans nowadays? >> piers: you are a democrat? >> no. >> piers: how would you describe yourself? >> i'm certainly more in line with their thinking. they disappoint me so much. if i was a democrat, i would be resigning every week. >> piers: do you vote? >> of course. >> piers: democrat? >> i volted for bob dole in '76 because both of my parents were in world war ii. if it was a close election, i would have voted for clinton. >> piers: when we come back, i want to talk to you not about about the --

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>> if you can look at a crime when everything points to one answer and can't see it, you are a dumb ass.

>> piers: casey anthony. >> better target. >> piers: talk to me about casey anthony. i found this, as a foreigner to this country, bordering on disturbing. >> bordering? what part of it is not disturbing. >> piers: the most disturbing was the willy wonka moment fighting to get their lucky ticket to get in to watch this reality television. >> i would put that about seventh or eighth on the disturbing list. number one is a jury in this country cannot seem to convict anybody no matter how overwhelming the evidence is. we just see this time and time again in high profile cases. >> piers: why is it do you think? is part of it television cameras in the court? >> part of is jury, trial of your peers. people are not that bright. they talk about the csi

phenomenon that people watch "csi" and every case, there should be this dna evidence. somehow this notion that circumstantial evidence got to mean phony evidence, no. circumstantial evidence is usually all there is. very rarely do murders videotape what they're doing. although this lady came close. >> piers: this thing about not understanding beyond reasonable doubt means. reasonable doubt means do you believe this lady did it. it doesn't mean where is the absolute hard evidence here. >> that was the point of our editorial. some paper printed bill maher blames casey anthony. >> piers: that comes down to your thing on stupidity. >> they cannot appreciate nuance. they can't do it. it's like my dog cannot tell the

difference between a hard rubber toy and the door stop which is hard and rubber and on the ground. i had to get metal door stops because i cannot get the idea in his head that a rubber toy and rubber door stop are two different things. that's what i would compare the american public to. >> piers: the whole phenomenon of casey anthony, it was fascinating to observe a country getting gripped with every machination of this trial. i saw, going into cnn makeup rooms everyone in there, gripped to the live streaming from the courtroom. i couldn't believe it. >> it was gripping. it was also -- what i kept thinking it's also very hypocritical to be so concerned in this country which treats children, i think horribly. you know, just turn the channel over from the casey anthony trial and you can watch toddlers in tiaras, where we celebrate this, mothers dressing up their

4-year-olds like whores and spraying a can of hair spray in a 6-year-old's face for 20 minutes. that's okay? i'm the last one going to bat for children, i don't have children, i don't particularly like children, but even i'm appalled what we do to children in this country. >> piers: look at the ratings for hln for the last month. i want to play you a clip of nancy grace you may recall. >> nancy grace has to prove she was somewhere else the day of the murder. any murder. i'm not saying she ask it. i'm saying who is always around and clearly capable of cold blooded murder without remorse. i think most americans are relieved to see nancy grace on tv because it means she's not hiding in the back seat of our car with piano wire and those cold black eyes.

>> piers: i want -- >> don't make me go there. >> piers: i have a lot of affection for nancy. there was a clip i saw the other day which was a bit of a lightning strike on a tree near caylee anthony's grave. nancy was exploding on air saying this is god's way of saying tot mom did it. even i sat back and said nancy, you need to rein it in a bit. >> what other modern country would that go over, where everything can be this is god. did you see michele bachmann, we found out last week, every decision she's made in her life is because god told her to do it. she wasn't in love with her husband. she didn't want to go to law school. she didn't want to run for congress. she thinks god is talking to her. when i was a kid, if someone thought god was talking to them, you called bellevue.

>> you are an apathetic atheist. >> i don't happens when you're done and i don't care. >> you were raised by an irish catholic and you became jewish, is that right? >> no, that's not right at all. >> piers: is it bordering on any form of accuracy? >> no. my mother was jewish. my father was catholic. like many mixed marriages, especially of that era, they picked one. it was catholic, and i was raised catholic. >> piers: then what happened? >> i was never jewish. i never set foot in a testimony many. >> piers: you are still a catholic? >> of course not. what is on this. i'm bill maher. nice to meet you. hopefully, one of america's most famous atheists. >> piers: you're not an atheist, you're an apatheist.

i'm okay with us not splitting the difference on those. if you're just not a super religious person, for me, you are on my team. it's hard to say. even richard dawkins says if we put it on a scale of 1 to 7, 1 being absolutely certain there is a god and 7 being absolutely certain there is no god, even i'm a 6.9 because we don't know. >> piers: where are you? >> 6.9. >> piers: a tiny fragment thinks there could be a god. >> it could be a good or it could be a spaghetti monitor. >> piers: how did your parents react to your apagt yichl. >> i was scared to death of the whole process. all i could do to keep it together in church. when i was a young teenager, thankfully my father stopped

going to church and that was the end of it. i was no longer any sort of catholic. then i went for many years not thinking about religion that much. i kind of believed in god, it was like when i was in trouble, i would bargain with him. god if you get me out of this, i promise i will quit smoking. >> piers: do you still do any of that? do you ever pray? >> pray? no. praying is trying to telepathically communicate with an imaginary friend. atheists don't pray. the past 15 or 20 years, that's been my view. >> piers: if you had prayed, would you pray for the kind of news cycle we have had from weiner gate to schwarzenegger gate? >> if there was a god, he was raining down on us. hey can i play with the toys ?

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>> in a world of politicians doing everything from having babies with the maid, leaving their wives on their death beds and hiking the ap lachian trail, you're guilty of the most humiliating indiscretion of all. you didn't get any. >> piers: that's more from hbo's more from bill maher. >> we're going after democrats. we are an equal opportunity. >> piers: essentially you are a comedian. >> absolutely. a comedian with a point of view. some have no point of view at all.

it was just observation. it was never what i found interesting. i had to have a point of view. when i was younger, it very often didn't resonate with audiences because they were like you are a 25-year-old kid. why should you be telling me about politics. >> piers: stand-ups i've interviewed have tormented backgrounds. you don't seem to have that. >> that's overrated. there are lots of comics who do. there are lots of comics who don't. comics, it goes across the board, i swear. there's great ones who are completely sane and then there are insane people who use that as fodder for their comedy. >> piers: you've been doing stand-up for several decades. >> 30 years. >> piers: do you get as much fun of that as you used to? >> much more, because i'm good at it now, and the audience comes to see me and specifically knows what i do. when you start out, that's when it's tough because you stink at

it, you're learning. you're learning something in front of people who are judging you and not giving you the reaction you want. it's got to be the hardest thing to learn. you know, you learn the computer, it's not in front of a group of judgmental people at 2:00 in the morning who are drunk and heckling you. >> piers: do you feel the pressure to always be on your game? the reason i ask you, i follow you on twitter. you're a great tweeter@bill maher. you make me laugh very consistently. >> thank you. >> piers: do you feel the pressure even when you're doing that, to be endlessly funny. >> i don't understand twitter when people just tell you what they're doing. that's so boring. you know, what do i care that you just had lunch or what you had for lunch. to me that's insane. to use twitter to say something when you -- if i don't have something to say, i don't say it. that's the great thing about twitter.

>> piers: you don't troll for the ladies like mr. weiner. >> my trolling days are over. >> piers: you said when you got near 50, just past 50, you realized you couldn't keep doing a certain type of joke which basically make you look like a dirty old man. you had this moment of awakening. >> also i changed. up until that era, i drank a lot more. when you drink, your life is different, because you could keep the party going all day, all night. not day. i didn't drink in the day. that's a drunk. but i certainly had a great time all over this town and all over this country for at least 20 years. drinking, when you can have a whole bunch of drinks in a night, you can go from one place to the next place. you know, it covers up a multitude of sins. people who are not that bright seem more interesting. people who are boring don't seem boring. you yourself are half in the bag, so if they're rude, it doesn't matter. it just changes your life completely.

>> piers: one of the smartest things you do as a hollywood lethario is not get married. i want to ask you how you have managed to avoid that and what you think of someone like charlie sheen who plunged in all guns blazing. >> i'll be happy to answer that. de-de-de-de-de ! scabbagabba ! honey, look, i won ! gas™ or brake. you can book a car anytime, anywhere. hertz, at the airport, in your neighborhood, or at hertz.com. [ male announcer ] an everyday moment can turn romantic anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready

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>> my special guest, bill maher. how have you avoided getting married? i say avoiding because so many plunge into the marriage and a breakdown and have an expensive divorce and then living in misery. >> aren't you going to get in trouble with your wife talking this way? >> she expects it. >> you're talking about it like, you didn't get caught. >> you've managed the right to preserve to behave how you like. >> i've never been a liar. there's lots of people that don't like me and that's fine. i never say anything purposely to piss people off but i say what i feel and that pisss a lot of people off but they can't say i'm a liar. to me, not getting married was part of that. some people have a very strong libido. you just have to deal with it. if i had gotten married any time before now, i couldn't be faithful. so i lived the life that

reported for me. >> are you a sexaholic. >> there's no such thing as a sexaholic. that's something dr. drew made up to explain andy dick. there's no such thing. but what i'll say is people, especially men, i can't speak for women, i know men have very different libido levels. some are just hornier. and that will subside. i found it subsided a bit after i turned 50 or in my early 50s and it was a great relief. like getting a monkey off your back. not that you can't still have a good sex life but it's not this constant urging like you had to take care of. i had a guest recently, and i love ray, he says he takes testosterone. he said, take some. first of all i wouldn't do that because i'm not sure of the repercussions. but i said, ray, i just got to

the point in my life where i don't have so much testosterone coursing through may veins running my life, i'm okay. >> when you look at someone like charlie sheen, what do you think of his behavioral pattern? >> i know charlie a bit. we've socialized a couple of times. i like the charlie i knew then. i don't like the one i've seen lately but that's mostly probably the cocaine talking. i don't like off rich guy born on third base. the good-looking son of a movie star, sort of rubbing it in other's people's faces that -- i'm winning. that's what i don't like about this charlie sheen. i also think that he should probably, and i'm not -- i'm a libertarian when it comes to drugs and stuff like that, but at the moment i got him ahead of gadhafi in the dead pool. he really needs to watch out. he could wind up in a body bag. >> do you still attend the playboy mansion on a regular basis?

and is it true that you honestly believe you only go there for the food? >> i said that, it was a joke. first of all, i never, ever, went to the playboy mansion more than a few times a year. i went when they had parties. everything hef does is like beautiful. >> i want to one -- >> yes, and no. i've never been no nigrotta, doesn't -- i wouldn't get in there on a bet. >> it was fascinating. >> there must have been diseases in there from columbus. >> are you kidding? but i went when they had a party new year's eve. very often i went. i went hef's birthday in april. mid summer night's dream and halloween. they make it sound like i lived there. bill cosby is there more than i am. they need to get on his case. >> you sound defensive. >> it just never, ever, doesn't

come up. whatever interview you do. >> i don't think of you as a lesser guy for going to the playboy mansion all the time -- >> but the fact that it obsesses people. they're just good parties. a guy with a nice, big backyard who's very generous with his liquor and there's lots of hot chicks around. i've been to other parties that could be described the same way. >> we'll come back and talk to you about this job and whether you wanted it. >> this job? >> yeah. >> i have a job! right now, go to priceline for a sneak peek at recent winning and better than ever! hotel bids to find where you n save up to 60% on hotels. * we'll even email you other people's winning bids, so you'll know what price to name. *á with new hotel bid alerts, from priceline.

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>> back with bill maher. bill, i know you took part in larry king's final show. it was quite moving. i've been a huge fan of his for years. i could see for you it meant quite a lot. >> it meant so much to me that he want med there and it meant a lot to me that he wanted me to be the one who he announced that he was stepping down to. i got that call like the day before. it was like a secret, larry's going to say something. i knew what they were talking about but they couldn't say it. yeah, i was telling you before. i was on that show so many times, it was almost like my therapy. every couple of months i would show up here and unload and vent for about an hour and i felt unburdened when i left. >> is this part of the trick here? >> i didn't think larry was diminished in any way. i think this is a youth culture

and they, especially in television, especially with high definition television. >> yeah. >> they're going to throw everybody out to pasture at some point. you can only do it for so long. and also, every generation has defined its own, you know, person to fill that role. johnny carson, i don't think was a diminished performer when he left. >> i heard you were tempted to go and do it yourself, this show, because you hosted it before? is that true? >> never. i've never had -- what's that? >> would it appeal to you? you used to do -- >> it would appeal to me more than like working with a leaf blower. but i love the job i have. i find the job i have completely unique. completely challenging every week. the news changes, the guest change and i'm on hbo. i am a person more than most who needs to be on hbo where you can say anything. where there aren't sponsors. if i was doing a show here every second day --